appy Valentines Day!  Today I wanted to give you a tournament report from the Loveland Open, which was held this past weekend, February 11-12, 2012 in Loveland, CO.

 

   In the position on the right it is White to move. 

 

   Answer below.

   Loveland is known as "The Sweetheart City", and every year more than 160,000 people send their Valentine's Day cards through Loveland to receive a special postage mark.  

 

   According to their website at http://www.loveland.org/ValentineProgram/index.php, Loveland, Colo. has been re-mailing valentines with a special cachet and postal cancellation since 1946.

   The Loveland Open this past weekend was a lot of fun! There were 60 players, from 6 different states:

• Colorado
• Wyoming
• Arizona
• North Carolina
• California
• Alaska!
  

   It is pretty unusual for a Colorado tournament to get so many out of state entries, and was a great turnout!

 

   Randy Reynolds did a great job as the TD, and rated the event already. Randy also crossed over 1800 for the first time!  He played in the first round, and won enough points to be over 1800.  He sat out the 2nd and 3rd rounds to keep the number of players even, but had to put his new rating back on the line in the 4th round against a young player.  Just like Ted Williams going for a .400 batting average, Randy prevailed, and earned a new title of "A" player - nice work Randy!

 

   Dean Brown celebrated a birthday on Saturday with 2 wins that day!

   My good friend and "wing man" Francisco Baltier came up from Tucson, Arizona for a long weekend. We went skiing at Copper Mountain on Thursday and Friday, and then pushed some wood on Saturday and Sunday, which was a nice balance of the physical and mental!

   Francisco is known for his dramatic come from behind victories (and for beating GM Walter Browne with the Fishing Pole), and this weekend was no exception. He forced resignation of one opponent while down 3 pawns, and came back to draw in another game in a 100 move game where he was down 2 pawns.  Both games were against higher rated opponents.  Francisco joked that he doesn't start to take the game seriously until he is down a couple pawns!  Nice work Francisco!

   My favorite part of the weekend though, was making a new friend with Clarence Buckholtz. Clarence had purchased my Tactics Time Training Database Product a few weeks ago, and told me that he has been working with it almost every day to get back into "game shape". This weekend at the Loveland Open was his first over the board rated USCF tournament in 25 years! He finished with a very respectable 2 wins, and had a great time!  Great job Clarence, and welcome back to over the board chess!  There is nothing quite like it!

 

   Here is the complete game:

 

[Event "Loveland 2012"]
[Site "Loveland, CO"]
[Date "2012.02.12"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Bekkedahl, Zach"]
[Black "Brennan, Tim"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B02"]
[WhiteElo "2099"]
[BlackElo "1812"]
[PlyCount "29"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nxd5 4. Bc4 c6 5. Qf3 e6 6. Nge2 Bd6 7. d4 Nd7 8.
Ne4 Bc7 9. Bg5 Ba5+ 10. b4 Bxb4+ 11. c3 Be7 12. Nd6+ Bxd6 13.
Bxd8 Kxd8 14. Bxd5 exd5 15. Qxf7 1-0
 

 

   You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?p=2840.

 

   Answer:

 

   12.Nd6+!! got a double exclam from Fritz 13. This move checks the King, and will win the Queen.

 

   If 12...Kf8 to get out of check, white mates with 13. Qxf7#.

 

   The only other way to get out of check is 12...Bxd6, which allows 13. Bxd8 winning the Queen for a knight and a bishop. White ends up with a nice material advantage.

 

 

   Happy Tactics!

 

   Your Friend,